Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage, 1877-1880

The first volume takes the Strahorns tireless scouts for the expanding railroad through Nebraska Colorado Utah Wyoming Idaho New Mexico Montana Washington and Oregon in the late 1870s. They experience every kind of discomfort mishap and peril as their Concord coach bumps down corduroy roads. Adell writes that she was "the first woman in many then unexploited regions" of the West. After she and Pard reach the West Coast in 1880 their lives take another adventurous turn described vividly in Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage: Volume 2 18801898. Both volumes are illustrated by Charles M. Russell and others. In her introduction Judith Austin coordinator of publications at the Idaho State Historical Society tells more about the peripatetic Strahorns who finally settled down in Spokane.